]In the stock market, one of the most critical measures investors look into is a company’s earnings. It is one of the most eagerly anticipated financial metrics to shed light on a company’s profitability. That is why investors watch the earnings season closely to get hints on where the company is headed and what insights are there. Investors can also look at the company’s historical performance to understand the company’s earnings trend and momentum. The more companies have stable financial results, the more the company’s earnings become predictable. And for that reason, these seven companies are poised to move higher during the next quarter and should be added to your list of hot stocks to buy now before earnings.
PetIQ, Inc. (PETQ)
PetIQ, Inc. (NASDAQ:PETQ) is a medication and wellness company for pets with around 60,000 distribution areas for its veterinary products and services. PETQ operates in two primary segments: it manufactures and distributes health and wells products and medication for pets with its products segment, and it also provides various services with its wellness centers and community clinics located across 41 states that offer vaccinations, microchipping, diagnostic tests, grooming, and wellness checks through its services segment.
PETQ has performed very well for the last two quarters, with growing earnings. Its previous two quarters alone have beaten analyst estimates by 105.56% and 52%, respectively. Furthermore, the company also reported a record increase of 24.8% in its quarterly sales, exceeding its expectations. PetIQ also reported an increase in record quarterly adjusted EBITDA of 36.3%. The company’s acquisition of Roco and Roxie early this year has also helped with its significant recovery in distributed product offerings. PETQ is poised to take advantage of Walmart’s (NYSE:WMT) drive to become a pet wellness destination, putting it in a great spot to take advantage of this through its partnership. This strong momentum puts PETQ on our list of stocks with upside potential.
LSI Industries Inc. (LYTS)
LSI Industries Inc. (NASDAQ:LYTS) is a production company making display solutions and non-residential lighting. Its operations include manufacturing and selling different displays, digital signage, menu board systems, and structural graphics through its company services segment. It also produces and sells various indoor and lighting fixtures and control solutions for the industrial and commercial markets via its lighting segment. The company’s primary customers are comprised of multiple grocery stores, pharmacies, warehouses, and restaurants, just to name a few.
LYTS has had a successful 2023 fiscal year, with all four quarters consistently beating analyst estimates. Markedly, the company’s net sales grew 9%, which increased its net income by 71% and 270 basis points of expanded EBITDA margins, while reducing its net debt by over 50% in the fiscal year. According to the President and CEO of LSI, James Clark, the normalization and improvement of the company’s supply chain has helped with the company’s performance and debt reduction. According to him, the company currently focuses on two main growth goals: increasing its JSI business case manufacturing capacity and developing its new refrigerant product using R-290 technology. Thus, these performance and future growth prospects put LYTS in our hot stocks to buy now list, before the new earnings quarter release.
Centrus Energy Corp. (LEU)
Centrus Energy Corp. (NYSE:LEU) is an enriched uranium supplier for the nuclear power and nuclear fuel & services industry. Its operations focus on two main segments. The first is low-enriched uranium, which is accountable for selling SWU components for LEU, nuclear fuel components to global customers, and natural uranium sales. Its second operational segment, technical solutions, focuses on design, engineering, and manufacturing services that help deploy uranium enrichment and production of advanced nuclear fuel for existing reactors globally.
Centrus Energy achieved a significant milestone in its latest quarter as it received NRC authorization to begin first-of-a-kind commercial HALEU production. This will be the first new U.S.-owned enrichment facility to launch operations since 1954. LEU has also been recovering its earnings performance in its latest quarter, beating analyst expectations with an 88.64% surprise. Additionally, the company’s revenue also grew by 47.09% on a quarter-over-quarter (QOQ) basis. With the ongoing momentum of revitalizing the U.S. nuclear energy supply chain, LEU is positioned to be a strong contender in capturing this momentum and increasing future growth and performance.
Steelcase Inc. (SCS)
Steelcase Inc. (NYSE:SCS) is a furniture, seating, and case goods company that caters to office environments, hospitals, and classrooms. The company has a comprehensive portfolio comprised of various brands like Steelcase, Orangebox, HALCON, Designtex, etc., alongside architectural products and services that cater to customer workplaces. SCS’s furniture portfolio includes seating, storage, benches, height-adjustable & fixed desks, and complimentary products and accessories.
As of late, SCS has consistently beaten analyst expectations. For example, its latest quarter release has garnered an 82.35% earnings surprise of 31 cents versus analyst estimates of 17 cents – a 35% increase in earnings on a year-over-year (YOY) basis. The company expects its full-year earnings to exceed its target based on its first-half results. Therefore, with a robust financial performance and positive management outlook, SCS is turning out to be one of the hot stocks to buy now.
REV Group, Inc. (REVG)
REV Group, Inc. (NYSE:REVG) designs and manufactures specialty vehicles and aftermarket parts and services. The company offers ambulance, emergency, road rescue vehicles, and wheeled coaches via its fire and emergency segments. This includes brands like E-One, Kovatch Mobile Equipment, and Ferrara. REVG also produces transit buses, sweepers, terminal trucks, and types of school buses in its commercial segment. Lastly, it has exposure in the RV market with its recreation segments principal brands like Fleetwood RV, Renegade RV, and Lance Camper.
REVG has delivered a solid third quarter with its 47.62% earnings surprise of 31 cents vs. analyst estimates of 21 cents. Consolidated net sales also grew by 14.30% on a QOQ basis, which the company attributed to higher net sales, including price realization within its commercial and fire and emergency segment. Furthermore, REVG also enjoys positive analyst sentiments with a “buy rating” from five firms. With its steady growth in earnings and sales, the company is ready to outperform even its company’s guidance and make it part of our list of hot stocks to buy now.
Nutanix, Inc. (NTNX)
Nutanix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTNX) is a cloud services and software solutions company offering its clients an enterprise cloud platform, Nutanix Cloud. The company provides a consistent cloud operating model that spans private-, hybrid-, edge, and multi-cloud environments for all applications and their data. This allows its clients to run and move workloads, including end-user computing, applications, virtual desktop infrastructure, enterprise applications, and analytics applications between on-premises and public clouds.
NTNX is in a great position to take advantage of the current tech boom on cloud and edge computing with its offerings. It has previously announced the adoption of Generative AI with its new Nutanix GPT-in-a-Box™ solution for customers looking to jump-start its machine learning and artificial intelligence innovation while still maintaining their control over their data. According to its latest Q4 and fiscal year results, annual contract value billings grew by 27% YOY, while free cash flow grew by $22.3 million to $45.5 million over the same period. The company’s recurring yearly revenue also grew by 30% while its earnings beat estimates by 81.25%. With AI and ML still in the early stages of adoption, NTNX has much room for future growth.
Braze, Inc. (BRZE)
Braze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BRZE) is a company that offers a customer engagement platform that provides its clients the ability to engage in a customer-centric interaction between their customers and brands. The platform ingests customer data in real-time and builds contextually relevant marketing campaigns that involve customer engagement strategies. Braze SDKs software library automatically ingests and manages data and delivers notification messages to clients while residing within the customer’s applications and website. BRZE’s REST API allows customers to export, import, or trigger workflows between brands and Braze’s technology stacks.
Braze is on our list of companies that stand to benefit from the recent AI boom. It has previously announced the addition of Sage AI into its platform to help expand the customer engagement journey of its clients. The company also acquired North Star, which will help increase its footprint in Australia. Looking at the company’s financial performance, BRZE has struggled to return to positive territory for its earnings. However, it has been beating analyst expectations, and its sales have been growing over the last four quarters. Its inclusion in the Russell 3000 index, “strong buy” analyst sentiment, and recent price performance tell us that the company is one of the hot stocks to buy now.
On the date of publication, Rick Orford did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
